Pride is over, all that’s left is a sunburn, a hangover and a bunch of pictures. Friday and Saturday Stan Hill stood on the stage at Ted Mann Concert Hall and waved his arms around for the last time. He’s going to wave his arms at us in Denver in a couple of weeks at GALA, then he’s off to sip “Stanhattans” in Palm Springs. We’re gonna miss him something fierce. I’m sure he’s not going to let his talent rust: I’m sure we’ll see more compositions out of him.
At the concert, we introduced the Twin Cities to our new Artistic Director, Ben Riggs. He’ll be the one waving his arms around next year, and he got to warm up a little at this concert when halfway through our signature song, right about at the key change where the basses take over the melody, Stan steps down from the podium and passes the baton to Ben, who finishes conducting the song. It was an extremely emotional moment and I almost lost it on the spot.
Once the concerts were over, it was time to put our Pride on and march in the parade. Halfway through the parade the generator ran out of gas … bummer … so we finished the parade singing “Walk Hand In Hand” a capella. It worked out okay. Jim and I hung around at the festival booth for a while, then it was time for the Block Party at the Saloon. A good time was had by all. I got a little too drunk, but hey that’s what Pride’s for.
Now it’s time to set our sights on Denver and GALA. There might be some water-works there, as that’s where Ben will be saying good-bye to the Denver Gay Men’s Chorus and Stan will be saying his final goodbyes to us. I better pack Kleenex™ for the trip.
Ah, well … we’ll always have Facebook.
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